Text Adventure and Role-Playing Games


1. The Adventure games in this section rely on your typing in commands
after which the computer responds with text telling you the result of your
action. For example, most let you type in "N" to go North and then will
respond with something like: "You have entered a hallway. There is a door
at the far end and stairs to the right." Then when you enter "Look", it
will describe the room (or whatever), like: "There is a book sitting on a
table." And you might enter: "Pick up book." and so on.

Most of the games are text only, but a few require graphics.

2. Role-Playing Simulations are games in which you must run a business,
build a bridge, command a ship, etc.


Contents:

-----Exploration Adventure Games
-----Humorous Adventure Games
-----Detective/Mystery Games
-----Dungeons/Caves
-----Role-Playing Simulations
-----Adventure Game Creators

================================

-----Exploration Adventure Games

[ADVEN_C]
Adventure ($0) is an adventure game with complete C source code.

[ADVENTUR]
Adventure Games ($0) This is a collection of old, text-based adventure
games, most of which require Basic. These are included primarily for people
who really love such games or who are Basic programmers and want to study
the source code.

[ALICE]
Alice in Wonderland (Johnson, R. C.; $10) is an adventure game based on
Lewis Carroll's famous book. The adventures you have will be based in part
on the book, but in many ways it will be very different. This is NOT an
easy game. We had trouble getting started at all.

[BORIS]
Boris (Targonski, Anthony; $20) In this game you try to get all the
necessary items you will need to take on a one-way trip to America without
being spotted by the KGB.

[BTN_ADV]
Button Games (Button, Conrad; $15) contains two adventure games,
"Castaway" and "South America Trek".

[BTN_ADV2]
Button Games #2 (Button, Conrad; $15) contains the games Nebula, Dark
Continent and Red Planet.

[COMBAT]
Combat starts as an adventure game but when you encounter monsters, it
switches to graphics for the sword fighting.

[CRYPTHS]
Crypt 2.0 (Herringbone Software; $12) is an all-text adventure involving
the exploration of an English church, churchyard, and underground vaults
where great treasures from British history may be found. These treasures
are protected by devious traps and creatures both natural and supernatural.

[DEXPLOR]
Dungeon Explorer 1.0 (Murphy, John; $10) is a graphical role playing game
in which you wander around the countryside, searching for treasures and
magic, and killing monsters. You can purchase potions, weapons, armor, and
healing points at special shops. (The author is no longer at the address
provided in the documentation.)

[DRED]
D.R.E.D. Attack (McWilliams, Wayne; $?) is a text adventure game where you
are one of the top agents and your job is to keep peace and stop all
disturbances. Sound effects are used effectively, but are optional.

[DROGANY]
Droganya (Chodes, Steve; $5) is a bi-active adventure game. The course of
the game is dictated by your response to the situation. The goal is to free
the souls of the townspeople which have been trapped by the evil Lord
Droganya.

[CRUSADE]
Crusade and Quest ($0) are two adventure games set in the Middle Ages.

[DITCH1, DITCH2]
Ditch Day Drifter (Roberts, Michael J.; $?) is a text adventure game that
takes place on the campus of Caltech. You play the main character: an
undergraduate at Caltech. As the story opens, you find that today is Ditch
Day, the Caltech tradition in which seniors leave campus for the day, but
not before barring the doors to their rooms with all sorts of complex
puzzles and devices called "stacks." Your job is to defeat the stack left
by the senior who lives across the hall from you, in order to get into his
room and claim whatever treasures await you.

[DS_AWAKE]
Deep Space Awakening (Stanley, Declan; $10) is a text-based adventure game
for advanced players. You awaken in space in your deep sleep capsule only
to find most of your fellow crew members have been devoured by an unknown
orange mold. You try to maneuver around the damaged spaceship, seeking
survivors, and trying not to be killed.

[DS_DRIFT]
Deep Space Drifter (High Energy Software; $15) you are adrift in your
spaceship, nearly out of fuel and in the middle of nowhere. The process of
getting rescued is where the adventure begins. In this text-only adventure
you must live by your wits, and try to survive the dangers of a hostile
universe. There are several interesting features that set this game apart
from other text adventures including a "review mode" that lets you go back
and look at text that is no longer visible on the screen, and a "Script"
command that writes everything you see on the screen (your commands and the
game's responses) to a disk file.

[EVETS]
Evets (Ackerman, Steven P.; $10) is a role-playing fantasy adventure game.
The program creates a drama where the player(s) are in a world of animated
mythology. Each player is a roguish character living by his wits who
attempts to challenge the fabulous spirits, sprites and monsters of
folklore. Players explore endless labyrinths and dungeons in search of
treasure and glory.

[GALLANT]
Sir Guy Gallant [Wright, Eddie R.; $10] ("... & The Deadly Warning") is a
mystery adventure game. It is set in mid-17th century England on the
property of Gallant Hall. You, as Sir Guy Gallant, a cavalier knight of
that era, must discover clues as to who killed your father, the late Sir
James.

[GAMORAMA]
Bob's Game-O-Rama (Maston, Robert A.; $?) contains two adventure games.

[HAUNTED]
Haunted - You search the neighborhood for the kidnapped Pumpkin Man and rid
the neighborhood of ghosts and other nasties.

[HUMBUG]
Humbug (Cluley, Graham; $20) HUMBUG starts innocently enough as you are are
sent to your Grandad's for the Christmas holidays. You must discover the
significance of the time machine in the cellar, play a round of
Wubble-A-Gloop with an octopus, hobnob with some peculiar Vikings, discern
the intentions of the evil neighbors, and much more. Getting used to some
of the English vernacular used in the story is part of the fun.

[ISLAND]
Island - You are stranded on an island.

[JACJIM]
Jacaranda Jim (Cluley, Graham; $20) In JACARANDA JIM you are rescued by an
alien after crash landing on the strange world of Ibberspleen IV. In this
game you will do battle with manic-depressive deckchair attendants,
navigate a sinister network of dank caves, and decipher the mystery of the
floating sphere. All will be revealed if you can just figure out what to do
with the gin-spitting pirate, a cucumber, and a piece of gristle.

[KILLADV]
KILLADV ($0) lets you try to survive as a tourist lost in some burnt-out,
deserted buildings in New York City. BASIC required.

[LOSTGOLD]
Lost Gold 1.02 (Johnson, Ray; $12) is a detailed text adventure that takes
you back to search for the Lost Dutchman Mine. There are lots of obstacles
and hazards to overcome, puzzles to solve, and assorted treasure mines to
explore.

[LOVEFIR]
Lovefire 1.2 (Pinnacle Software; $0) is a branching story program. You get
to make decisions about the way the story develops. It's a cross between a
novel and an adventure game. Oh yeah, and it's for women only! Female
chauvinist programmer...

[LUCIFER]
Lucifer is a real-time adventure game. Real-time means that unlike other
adventure games where you can take your time entering commands, you have to
be fast on the keyboard. An additional program lets you create your own
dungeons. A CPU slow-down utility may be required.

[MCMURPHY]
McMurphy's Mansion (Martin-A; $10) is an all-text adventure game. It
features an on-screen map (no graphics required), help screens and
inventory list.

[PIRATE]
Pirate is an interesting maze type of game in which you try to work your
way through tunnels and ledges in and around a cave, looking for a pirate's
treasure. Once found, you attempt to work your way back out without losing
the treasure. BASIC required. Also in this archive is a French-language
adaptation of Pirate by Jean-Pierre Cabannes. The player may use the
numeric keypad as direction keys, the labyrinth and catacombs are more
complicated, and the second location of the treasure is at a random place.

[REDPLAN]
Red Planet (Button, Conrad; $20) You go to Mars to secure the lost
treasures of Aukbaa. Upon achieving planetary orbit you find that your fuel
is depleted. Can you acquire the Lost Treasures of Aukbaa and return home?
This is an advanced level game.

[SANITY]
Sanity Clause (McCauley, Mike; $10) is a bizarre text adventure in which
you attempt to get Santa Claus around the world on Christmas Eve by jumping
from time zone to time zone to stay at midnight. You must deal with screwy
elves, flying reindeer, hostile climates, and other situations which defy
description. This game is suitable for all ages; you cannot die and you
don't have to kill any one or thing, but if you fail in your tasks
Christmas will be ruined for the entire world.

[SKULL]
SkullDuggery 3.1 (Jewett, David; $12) is a classic text adventure, set on
the southeast coast of eighteenth-century England.

[SOGGY]
Shades of Gray (Steve Bauman and others; $0) is a psychological thriller in
the form of a text adventure game. You awaken in a dark room with three
vampires discussing your fate. After you burst through the door and
scramble into the desolate woods, you must discover your purpose in this
nightmare. You will meet and talk with friends and foes on your quest, and
there are many thought-provoking puzzles to be solved.

[SQUYNCH]
Squynch (Malmberg, David; $0) is an adventure game in which you try to save
a nation of very odd creatures by finding the crown jewels. Easy to
moderate difficulty.

[ST]
Spectre Tower (McWilliams, Wayne; $?) is another in a series of text
adventure games in which you play a top secret agent. This adventure takes
you through the Spectre Tower.

[STAGEFRI]
Son of Stagefright (McCauley, Mike; $5) is a text adventure game. This game
was the first place winner in the third annual AGT Adventure Game Writing
Contest. In it, you play the role of an actor or actress trying to get out
of an old, abandoned theater. Along the way you'll run into creaky
catwalks, raging rivers, mini mazes, rogues, royalty, rats and a zoo
keeper.

[SUBMARI]
Submarine - You are a crewman on a nuclear submarine. It's up to you to
make the mission a successful one.

[TERROR]
Terror - The government has sent you to Antarctica where the enemy has a
secret weapon hidden in an ice cavern. You must get in, steal the plans,
and get back out.

[TITANIC]
Beyond the Titanic is a text adventure game.

[UNNKUL1, UNNKUL2]
UnnKulian Adventures (High Energy Software; $10) is a pair of richly
complex, well-written, text-based adventure games, Unnkulian Unventure II:
The Secret of ACME and Unnkulian Underworld: The Unknown Unventure.

[WIZ_LAIR]
Wizard's Lair (Nowalk, Rick; $25) is an adventure game where you will
travel with a group through the wilderness, the wasteland or the hidden
valley fighting various monsters. Skill levels are acquired as the game
goes on.

[WS20]
Wilderness Survival (Carroll, Christian D.; $12-$15) is a fantasy adventure
game in which you get lost in the National Forest with only a Swiss Army
Knife and have to find your way to the Ranger Station. Perils include fist
fights with Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, and others as well as foot races
with Indians. Meanwhile, Rugglestone Ripper is a murderer who has been
hiding in the forest and it's up to you to solve the crime and bring him to
justice.

[ZOARRE]
Zoarre is an adventure game.


-----Humorous Adventure Games:

[DUDLEY]
Dudley Dilemma (Barrow, Lane; $?) In this game, you play the role of a
Harvard student living in Dudley House in his/her quest for knowledge,
adventure and a diploma. This award winning game is a very clever, humorous
and challenging adventure in the classic style of Infocom.

[LIFELESS]
"Another Lifeless Planet..." C.1 (Drew, Dennis; $?) ("...and Me with No
Beer") is an adventure game in which everything you do or come in contact
with has an express purpose. You are a hapless astronaut stranded on a
hostile alien planet, trying to get to an alien spaceship and rig it to
blast off safely. You will face perils such as deadly Slurpers, Air Squids,
Bladderbeasts, and the terrible Pun Palm Tree. Prepare to die horribly and
often; we couldn't get past the large, icky-looking monster. Requires 640k,
and a hard disk is recommended.

[MD_THIEF]
Multi-Dimensional Thief (Finch, Joel; $0) is a humorous text adventure
game. Pop-up hints are included.

[PORK]
Pork (Malmberg, David; $0) is a parody of Infocom's Zork text adventure, as
well as being an interesting adventure game. You do not need to have played
Zork to enjoy this game. Requires a hard disk or high density floppy.

[QUEST]
Quest Mini-Adventure Number #1 1.0 (Kemplin, Rick; $0) is novella-type role
playing game that lets the player decide the story's outcome by deciding
plot turns. Quest is more short-story than game. (Text may not be suitable
for children in places.) A slow-down utility may be needed.

[T_ZERO]
T-Zero (Cunningham, Dennis M. ASP; $15) is a text-based adventure game that
mixes elements of fantasy and science fiction, while exploring the nature
of time. Your task is to locate six objects scattered across eras and
landscapes, and manipulate them in a fashion that will right the troubled
times. The prose featured in this game is beautifully descriptive, although
a bit on the cryptic side. This is one of the most unusual adventures
you'll ever go on.


-----Detective/Mystery Games:

[CLIF_DVR]
Cliff Diver (Farley, Patrick; $10) is an adventure game in which you help
Cliff Diver, a private investigator living and working in San Francisco,
solve a crime. A pop-up hint file is included.

[CRIME]
Crime - You solve a crime that starts in a video arcade.

[FBI]
FBI (MicroMinded Software Co.; $20) is a game in which you are are the
director of a team of up to eleven field agents which are located all over
the United States. Your assignment is to guide these agents so that they
can chase and capture crooks.

[HIGHSEA]
High Sea Homicide (Sherwood Forest Software; $15) is a murder mystery game.
While on vacation aboard an ocean liner, you find yourself in the midst of
a murder mystery. You must find the killer and bring them to justice.
Requires VGA & hard drive.

[ITTYBIT]
Itty Bitty Mysteries (BEZ; $10) is a collection of five different mysteries
to solve. Each mystery starts with a picture of the situation and a little
background information. As you move the cursor around the screen, it will
change into a magnifying glass when it touches a clue. When you are ready
to solve the mystery, you are asked a series of question to see if you
really have all the facts. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure
these out, but you will have to pay careful attention to all the obvious
(and not-so-obvious) clues at your disposal.

[MDV]
Mordorventure III 6.0 (Rockland Software Productions; $17) is a
role-playing fantasy adventure game. Up to five people can play
simultaneously or play against the computer. May require a cpu slow-down
utility.

[SAMSPAD]
SamSpade is an adventure that lets you solve a mystery a la Sam Spade.

[SLEUTH]
Sleuth (Miller, Eric; $?) is a murder-mystery adventure game. As you begin
a game of SLEUTH a murder has just been committed. Your job is to mingle
with the houseguests and to search the contents of the house until you feel
you have solved the crime. Every game of SLEUTH is different so you must
fully explore the house each time that you play.

[SWEDEN]
One Night in Sweden (Gustafsson, Roger; $20) is a murder mystery adventure
or role-playing game. It proceeds from a man's point of view, but women
could play it too. This game is based on realistic interaction with the
characters in the story. There are no "right" or "wrong" answers. You have
to be smart and tactical to inspire confidence and get information, just
like in real life. You have to be even smarter to use the clues and find
out who the murderer is. The program features high-res black and white
animated graphics and music. The game is different each time you play.


-----Dungeons/Caves:

[COL_CAVE]
Colossal Cave (ImageIllusions; $0) The object is to get into the cave,
gather all the treasures and get out alive. Requires 384K.

[DUNGEONS]
DND (Knight, Bill; $?) is a computerized version of a popular role-playing
game known as Dungeons and Dragons.

[NETHACK]
Nethack (Fenlason, Jay; $0) is a game of 28+ levels, 150+ rooms, and
countless corridors. Danger abounds in this game. Besides a huge inventory
of monsters there are many traps awaiting the unwary. Also, many of the
treasures you find (and you find plenty if you live long enough) turn out
to be very hazardous to your health. In fact, if you are an average
beginning player, we can safely predict that you will probably not get past
level 3 during the first 10 games you play (unless you happen to fall
through a trap door). Required: 512k, hard disk.

[HACK]
Hack (Kneller, Don; $?) is a "Dungeons and Dragons"-type game. Like the
other Dungeons and Dragons game on the library, a hard disk or RAM disk is
recommended. If you do not have RAM-disk software, see the "Disk Drives"
section of the Guide. Hack is a display oriented "Dungeons and Dragons"
type game. It is similar in style to ROGUE played on UNIX systems but HACK
is much richer in character. Hack has many more monsters and highly varied
magic. The motivation in Hack is to descend through the dungeon to find the
Amulet of Yendor, then return to the surface. As you travel you will meet
various creatures (most of them nasty), find objects (some having magical
properties), and experience many hazards in the dungeon itself.

[OMEGA]
Omega (Brothers, Laurence R.; $?) is a complex rogue-style game of dungeon
exploration. There are a number of ways to win, and the game (via the
oracle) may impose some structure on your exploration, but you need not
follow all of the oracle's advice. The game is very similar to Rogue, Hack,
Ultrarogue, Larn, and other such games. Requires 640K of memory and a hard
disk.

[HUMONGUS]
Humongous Cave (Softworks ASP; $15) is a complex text adventure game based
on the 550 point version of Colossal Cave. It encompasses 300 different
locations and over 200 creatures, treasures, and puzzles totaling 1000
points. There is an ingenious help system that can be invoked at any time,
producing a topic menu. The clues are revealed one at a time, so you can
stop looking if you don't want to cheat too much. This is a vast,
professionally produced game which requires 512K of memory and 1.2 meg of
disk space.

[LABYRNTH]
Deadly Labyrinth (West, Frank; $0) is a text adventure game inspired by a
series of books from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman called the Death Gate
Cycle.

[EC3]
Enchanted Castle (Wilk, Michael; $15) is a very well written adventure in
an old castle.

[EVILCRP]
Evil Crypt (Keisler, Curtis; $5) As Willie the Wizard you have to recover
your sword and spellbook from the evil lord to to save the people of
Seleria. The evil lord has granted you the opportunity to explore the three
levels of his evil crypt to gather your possesions. You will encounter bugs
that can bite through steel, poisonous snakes, intergalactic creatures,
bottomless pits and more.

[AMUSEUM]
Adventurer's Museum (Chapel, Lee; $15-$45) requires you to search a cave
for stolen museum treasures, avoiding traps and obstacles.


-----Role-Playing Simulations:

[BIGRIG]
BigRig is a well-done game in which you drive a big truck of freight across
country. You decide what type of freight to carry, whether to spend money
on maintenance, whether to exceed the speed limit, etc.

[EMPIRE]
Empire 5.0 is a simulation of a full-scale war between two emperors, the
computer and you.

[FRIGATE]
Frigate 1.2 (Kaufman, Matt; $0) is a simulation game which pits you and
your ship against a Soviet fleet of vessels. The object of the game is to
destroy as many Russian ships as possible while avoiding destruction.

[IBC]
International Bridge Contractors is a business strategy game in which you
compete against other businesses.

[LIFEROD]
Down Life's Road (Von Pein, Daniel R.; $0) lets up to three players compete
against each other or against the computer to see who can deal with daily
financial decisions and reach a preset monetary goal.

[NATIONS]
The Strength of Nations 2.2 (del Rio, Israel; $10) is set in the year 2019
in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. You lead one of the rebuilding
nations. Up to three people can play at once.

[OILWELL]
Oilwell (MTK Software; $5) is a game of strategy and luck for one player.
As the game begins, you have just just inherited an oil company from your
rich uncle. The oil company has $50,000 in cash, a single oilwell, and a
mortgage. During the game you must use your skill to increase your worth to
$3,000,000 in order to pay off the mortgage. You have twenty turns in which
to do this. Each turn consists of unlimited moves of buying, selling,
refining, searching for oil, starting wells, and drilling on wells. At the
end of each turn you must pay your taxes. During the game you may have to
face strikes by the union, fires, and random occurrences which may
influence the cost of crude oil or your refining costs. Sounds like your
average work day in Houston.

[ROCKSTAR]
RockStar (Wizard Games; $20) is a game in which you are trying to gain
popularity and chart success in the crazy world of sex, drugs, and rock and
roll. Your health, alertness, creativity, happiness, and drug intake are
constantly monitored and must be carefully controlled.

[SEAWOLF]
Tommy's Seawolf 12.18.89 (Tommy's Toys; $2) puts you in control of a
submarine. Features include real-time sonar display and realistic sound
effects. ASCII characters are used for graphics, so it will run on any
machine.

[SPMINER]
Spaceminer! (Nelson, Mark P.; $10) is a text-based game that finds you in
charge of a mining colony on a remote mining colony on Beta Crucis IV. You
must make decisions concerning the sale and purchase of the individual
mines, sale of ore to traders, and procurement of food and supplies for
your people. Can you survive?

[SRULER]
Supreme Ruler Plus (Orcus Maximus Software International; $0) is a game in
which you are the president of a small country trying to beat up as many as
eight other countries in a race for land and wealth. It can be played by
nine people or up to nine computer opponents.

[WISH25]
WishingWell 2.5 (Rongey, Tony; $10) is a petroleum exploration game. This
game was designed to be as close a possible to real petroleum prospecting.
The 2D and 3D prospect maps present realistic subsurface topography similar
to common geological maps. The economics and production also follow rules
which insure realistic game play. Those of you who are familiar with the
oil business will appreciate the inclusion of a simple production decline
curve and the limits imposed on production by depth and formation
characteristics. A detailed financial statement is also included. Although
the simulation is complex the instructions are simple, and play is fairly
intuitive. Requires CGA or EGA.


-----Adventure Game Creators:

** Programs for creating text-only adventure games.
** Also see ADVEN_GR for graphical adventure game creators.

[AGT]
Adventure Game Toolkit 1.5 (Malmberg, David R. & Welch, Mark J. ASP; $20)
will allow you to create and play your own text adventure games. The
Standard Level requires no programming experience to generate interesting
games. The Professional Level makes use of a special adventure game
language to create games that have the professional look and feel of
commercial (eg: Infocom) adventure games. Games can have up to 200
locations, 100 inanimate objects, 100 people, animals or creatures, and up
to a 400-word vocabulary. Requires 384k+.

[ADVCOMP]
AdvComp is an adventure game compiler that lets you create your own simple
adventure games. BASIC is required. (Not on a par with AGT, above.)

[GAMSCAPE]
GameScape Graphic C.2 (Drew, Dennis; $95) helps you design adventure games.
You can describe locations and rooms, objects, recognizable words, messages
and occurrences that happened within the game. You can create games of any
size, and include sound and music.

[TADS]
TADS 2.0 (Roberts, Michael J.; $43) is a development system for creating
text adventure games. It consists of a compiler for a high-level
object-oriented language, a run-time system providing a sophisticated
player command parser, and a set of common adventure objects such as a room
or items that the player can pick up and carry around. Saving and restoring
games, undoing commands, controlling the on-screen display, and several
other low-level tasks are done automatically by the system. A sample game
is included.